Nazi Germany And The Soviet Union Essay

Between 1945 and 1991 there was a lengthy struggle of ideologies between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was fuelled in the aftermath of the surrender of Hitler’s Germany. America followed a political system of democracy, hence were capitalist, and in contrast the USSR was a communist state meaning they were anti-liberal. Both countries tried to strengthen themselves and weaken the other side, without becoming involved in a ‘hot’ war. They competed for influence in the world and wanted to advance their economic interests. Both countries aided to the start of the Cold War however, Joseph Stalin’s actions lead him to be mainly responsible, rather than Harry S. Truman.

The U.S and the Soviet Union had mistrusted each other from the beginning, which started the Cold War. when the U.S was attacked on December 1941, The Soviet Union had made an alliance with them along with Britain, which soon followed with the U.S supplying their allies with military supplies. During their alliance against the fascist powers, Stalin was suspicious which made “The Soviets believed that the Western Allies had

From the years of 1941 to 1949, there was an increase in suspicion and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a Communist country ruled by a dictator while America was a capitalist democracy that valued freedom. Their completely different beliefs and aims caused friction to form between them, which contributed to the creation of the Cold War.

During World War II the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as Allies against the Axis Powers, however the relationship between the two was tense. The Axis Powers were an alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan. The United States government was wary of the Soviets because they were communists and Americans were concerned about the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. The political systems of the two countries prevented them from reaching a mutual agreements such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which then resulted in war. This nuclear war had a huge affect on the society, along with communism, education and even the Space Race. Hysteria was caused in result of the threat communism, which was later called the Red Scare. The Cold War impacted

During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union created an alliance to prevent Nazi Germany from spreading their fascist and radical ideals, but after the war, it quickly became apparent that both countries had intentions to exploit their previously stable relationship. Shortly after World War II, the Soviet Union made it their primary goal to expand their communist policies across Europe (and eventually the world). Their communist policies heavily contradicted the reason why the United States joined World War II, contrasted American ideals, and placed American democracy in jeopardy. Although relations seemed healthy shortly after the war, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union dwindled to war due to the United States’

Nazi-Soviet Pact and Appeasement The Nazi-Soviet was a non-aggression pact signed by the foreign ministers of Germany and Russia on 23 August 1939. When Germany and Russia reached this promise not to fight each other, they made a secret pact to invade and divide Polandand give the Baltic States to Russia. By signing the Pact, Germany was able to invade Poland from the west and the Soviet Union gained the eastern half of Poland as well as the Baltic States as well as gaining time to prepare for war against Germany.

The wartime between 1947 and 1991 is more formally known as the Cold War, which describes the growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II. The governmental system that was in place under the Soviet Union followed that of Communism, which was a great fear of Americans, who did not want to see their country fall to that type of government. The largest fear of any democratic society or country during the time period was that communism would grow to take over the country and that the Soviet Union would become the world’s superpower. The United State’s president at the time of the start of the Cold War was Harry Truman, who highly disliked Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, which affected his opinions

Despite the U.S’s effort to come to a mutual agreement with the Soviets after the war at the Yalta Conference, tension has gradually progressed throughout the years that led to an even further separation between the two leading powers. In addition to, the Soviets disregarded the compromises made at the Yalta Conference to have free and fair elections in Europe, instead creating a buffer in Eastern Europe, settling Soviet satellites. By committing such actions, the U.S automatically became suspicious and concluded that the Soviets were ultimately compelled to spread communism. The U.S further distrusted the Soviets when they secretly signed the Nonaggression Pact with the Nazis, to acquire half of Poland for security reasons, so Germany doesn’t invade Russia. This pact made it clearly evident for the U.S that the Soviets are not loyal, that their primary goal is to protect their own interests or assets first, and moral or obligatory issues involving other countries second. The Soviet Union had their own reasons for not trusting the U.S too because they claim them to be just as interested in protecting their own interests and had their own motives for

The 1980’s were a dynamic time in the life cycle of the Cold War. The early portion of this decade, which saw massive shifts in the administrations of the United States and Soviet Union, maintained an atmosphere of suspicion, wariness, and skepticism. This theme of uncertainty and caution was the logical product of decades of both American and Soviet duplicity, confrontation, and militarization. Yet, despite this mistrust between the polar Cold War belligerents, and contrary to the early rhetoric of the Reagan administration, the United States and Soviet Union modified their perceptions of each other’s intentions following 1985’s Reykjavik Summit, which, despite producing no tangible results, established common desire for arms reduction and a conclusion of the Cold War. This warming of relations, however, increased at a gradual rate and encountered significant hurdles as the two nations attempted to limit the potential for thermonuclear war. Ultimately, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev’s “dialogue of the eyes” transitioned from one administration to the next, while also weathering significant domestic pressures as the United Soviet Socialist Republic disintegrated.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were allies of convenience; they had dissimilar goals, but shared a common enemy (the Axis powers). The Soviet Union 's government was much closer to Germany 's than America 's in ideas and practice, and when the war ended these differences in world view between the countries became seemingly irreconcilable.

The Unites States and Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics put aside their immense political differences to become allies during World War II. Previous hostility between the Soviet Union and democratic nations, did not stop the communist world power from forming an alliance with the United States and Great Britain. The United States similar to the Soviet Union saw Nazi Germany as a greater threat to national security and world peace than the other’s political ideologies or philosophies; therefore, the most dangerous enemy. Tensions during the alliance were always near, but a common opponent concealed a restricted amount ideology in common. Even with the political differences, the United States, Britain, Soviet Union and additional nations surfaced from World War II victorious in 1945. The alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union disintegrate quickly after the surrender of Japan. The rapid change from allies to enemies was rooted in the Unites States and Soviet Union’s foreign policies towards each other. The Soviets wanted to spread the political and economic system of communism into Eastern Europe, while the United States wanted to protect all countries from the threat of communism. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, demanded that Eastern European countries enter the Soviet sphere of influence. The United States was resistant to allow Stalin dictate the shape of the postwar world, which began Unites States’ anti-communist foreign policy.

Myth: America defeated Nazi Germany with help from its plucky British and United States sidekick

America’s tension with the Soviet Union grew stronger during World War II, but it was clear that this alliance would be short lived and following it would be the race between Democracy and communism. The countries represented the extremes in social ideology; American Capitalism with monetary pursuit and rugged individualism, and the USSR’s Communist preaching redistribution of wealth under temporary totalitarian rule (that never left power). The tension had been building up since the Russian Revolution with America not recognizing the Bolshevik Government until 1933, and was brought to its tipping point during WWII as the USSR had been denied its, proper second front, its development of atomic weapons, and ultimately the denial of reconstruction loan while Britain’s was approved. Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. They made strategic plans to defeat Germany and began discussing crucial postwar issues. All this build up caused Stalin to pursue his own goals instead, as was demonstrated when the war was over when Soviets refused to recognize Poland’s conservative in exile and instead instituted a communist government as it had been continuously doing in Eastern Europe. With the European Allies exhausted of their resources. It fell upon America and F.D.R’s successor, Harry Truman, to engage the USSR and its spreading communism, beginning the Cold War. However as America for the majority of its existence had remained an isolationist

The Zbigniew Brzezinski defined a Soviet victory as entailing “the submissive neutralization of both Western Europe (through the dismantling of NATO) and Japan, and the withdrawal of U.S. political military presence across the oceans. Moreover, victory was also defined as attaining the worldwide economic supremacy of communism over capitalism” . Part of this view is corroborated in the infamous Long Telegram by American diplomat George F. Kennan, which, among other things, claimed that the USSR wanted to further socialism at the cost of Western capitalism. . From both sources, one can assume the terms of victory for the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and, consequently, these can be compared with the actual events of the Cold War to determine how large a defeat the Soviet Union suffered. It is indeed true that the Western capitalism emerged victorious in the end. Western Europe wasn’t “neutralised”; in fact, it was Eastern Europe that submitted to Western politics as the USSR collapsed. Similarly, by the end of the Cold War it was the USSR’s political presence - rather than the US’ - that had collapsed, leaving the US seemingly unopposed as the leading global superpower. In each of these cases, it appears that the Soviet Union suffered a total defeat far removed from any conditions of victory. However, while this paper will begin by examining these areas of defeat, it will then go on to argue that the defeat was not necessarily total. Finally, it will argue that survival and

Two totalitarian regimes which are both political systems and influenced society significantly are Communism and Nazism. They influenced and changed people’s rights, their views on things and people in general. Communism and Nazism are the two totalitarian systems I’m going to talk about. They were spread in different areas, but both of them caused big consequences. Communism started in Russian and spread around in Eastern Europe and Nazism started in Germany and spread in that area. People have gone through many bad times when those two totalitarian systems were in power, but we can’t always say that people’s lives were better before they were in power.